K.Mandla's blog of Linux experiences

Jamendo killed my mp3 collection

After careful deliberation I decided to pull the plug on about 30Gb of music I’ve been hoarding for the past few years. Yes, most of it was illicit — although I did rationalize by telling myself that I did, in most cases, buy those albums at least once, a long time ago.

But to be honest, it wasn’t worth it to me to keep them any longer. I can think of about four albums out of around 300 that I actually listened to with any frequency. The others were rarely in use, and that’s a rather liberal way of putting it.

Add to that the fact that most of the music I listen to now is downloaded from Jamendo, and is perfectly legal and free. I spend more time listening to Revolution Void or Fonetik or Vate than Bob Marley or Public Enemy. So why in the world was I keeping it all?

It’s Ubuntu’s fault, really. If I hadn’t gotten started on the free software ride, I wouldn’t have any compunctions about stolen music. What’s 300 stolen albums when you’ve collected $2000+ in stolen software?

All that aside, I opened PCManFM this morning, highlighted all the stuff I don’t listen to, and pressed the delete key. It’s gone, and to be honest, I don’t miss it.